Topic: Filipino salon owner uses own hair to create portraits
Every few months when Jesstoni Garcia takes electric clippers to his head, he’s not just giving himself a haircut, he’s also harvesting art materials.
每隔數月，當傑斯托尼‧賈西亞拿電剪推自己的頭時，不僅在為自己理髮，也在收集藝術材料。
Using a thin brush and clear, sticky resin, the co-owner of a Manila hair salon sprinkles these strands and clippings on a blank canvas, taking two to five hours to arrange them into striking images of musicians and actors.
這名馬尼拉一家美髮沙龍的共同老闆，用細刷子和透明、富黏性的樹脂，把剪下來的髮絲刷在空白的畫布上，再花2至5小時調整成惹人注目的音樂家和演員肖像。
The 32-year-old’s main job as a seaman involves spending up to eight months a year on cruise ships, and lacking adequate art supplies like paint and sketchpads at sea, Garcia in 2021 turned to using his own hair to create images. He started with self-portraits and eventually moved on to depicting celebrities.
32歲的賈西亞本職是航海員，一年有多達8個月在遊輪上，航海期間欠缺顏料和畫板等藝術材料，所以在2021年轉而用自己的頭髮創作肖像。他從自畫像著手，逐漸開始描繪名人。
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Topic: Top Philippine presidential candidates oppose legalising divorce 菲律賓主要總統候選人反對離婚合法化
The Philippines looks likely to remain one of the few countries where divorce is illegal, based on a survey of the four leading presidential candidates on Sunday.
根據週日一項針對排名領先的4名總統候選人進行的調查顯示，菲律賓看起來可能仍是離婚違法的極少數國家之一。
Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe, veteran mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former interior secretary Mar Roxas were asked during a presidential debate to raise their hands if they favoured legalisation of divorce.
副總統畢乃、參議員柏吾、經歷豐富的市長杜特爾特，以及前內政部長羅哈斯，在總統候選人辯論會上被要求，若支持離婚合法化則舉手。
Not one raised a hand in the brief segment. They were not given time to explain their stance.
在這簡短片段中無人舉手，他們也沒獲得時間解釋立場。
The overwhelmingly Catholic Philippines is the only country aside from the Vatican that bans divorce.
絕大多數人口為天主教徒的菲律賓，是梵蒂岡以外唯一禁止離婚的國家。
Strong pressure from the Catholic church has stymied previous attempts to pass a divorce law even though a survey last year showed that about 60 percent of adult Filipinos support such a measure.
來自天主教教會的強大壓力，阻礙了此前試圖通過離婚法的努力，即使去年一項調查顯示，約60％菲律賓成人支持這類措施亦然。
In another portion of the debate, the four candidates were asked who supported restoration of the death penalty.
在辯論會的另一部分，4名候選人被問及誰支持恢復死刑。
Poe and Duterte, who openly boasts about killing criminals, both raised their hands despite the Catholic church’s opposition to capital punishment.
公開讚揚處決罪犯的柏吾與杜特爾特舉起手，儘管天主教會反對死刑。
The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in 2006, partly due to lobbying by the church.
2006年菲律賓廢除死刑，部分原因在於教會的遊說。Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1529737 ; https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/paper/971329
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Topic: Growing ‘mermaiding’ subculture makes a splash
There was a pivotal moment in Queen Pangke Tabora’s life that eclipsed all others: It was the moment, she says, when she first slid her legs into a mermaid tail.
在潘奇．塔波拉皇后的生命中，有一個關鍵時刻令其它時刻都黯然失色：她說，就是當她第一次把雙腳滑進一個美人魚尾巴的時刻。
For the transgender Filipina woman approaching middle age, seeing her legs encased in vibrant, scaly-looking neoprene three years ago was the realization of a childhood dream. And it marked the beginning of her immersion into a watery world where she would find acceptance.
對這位即將步入中年的菲律賓跨性別女性來說，三年前看到她的雙腿被包覆在充滿活力、鱗片狀的紐普韌橡膠中，是兒時夢想的實現。代表著她開始沉浸在一個自己能夠獲得接受的水世界。
The former insurance company worker described the experience of gliding under water, half-human and half-fish, as “meditation in motion.”“The feeling was mermai-zing,”Tabora said one recent morning while lounging in a fiery red tail on a rocky beach south of Manila, where she now teaches mermaiding and freediving full-time.
這位保險公司前員工把在水下滑行、半人半魚的經驗描述成「運動中的冥想」。最近一個早晨在馬尼拉南方一處礁石海灘休息時，身著火紅魚尾服的塔波拉說，「這種美人魚的感覺太驚人了」，她在這裡全職教授如何像美人魚般游泳和自由潛水。
In recent years, a growing number have gleefully flocked to mermaid conventions and competitions, formed local groups called“pods,” launched mermaid magazines and poured their savings into a multimillion-dollar mermaid tail industry.
在最近幾年，越來越多人歡喜地湧向美人魚大會和競賽，形成各個叫做「pods」的地方團體，發行美人魚雜誌，把他們的積蓄投入這個價值數百萬美元的美人魚尾巴行業。
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Philippine collector amasses super-sized collection of fast-food restaurant toys 菲律賓收藏家蒐集極大量速食餐廳玩具
From the age of 5, Filipino graphic artist Percival Lugue has had a passion for collecting toys from fast-food restaurant chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and home-country favorite Jollibee.
菲律賓平面設計師帕西瓦爾‧魯格，從5歲開始就滿腔熱血地蒐集麥當勞、漢堡王及當地人最愛的快樂蜂等速食連鎖餐廳的玩具。
Now, the 50-year-old has about 20,000 toys packed from floor to ceiling in his home and holds a Guinness World Record from 2014, when his collection reached more than 10,000 items.
現在，50歲的魯格擁有約2萬組玩具，在家裡從地板堆到天花板，且2014年起持續保持金氏世界紀錄，當時他收藏的玩具已超過1萬組。
Lugue built his home especially to house his collection. He likens the excitement that getting new toys gives him to Christmas morning. "The toy is like a storyteller in itself."
魯格蓋了自己的房子就是為了放藏品，他把得到新玩具的興奮感比擬成耶誕節早晨，「玩具本身就像個說故事的人。」
While most of his toys were obtained through personal purchases, some were donated by friends and family.
儘管大部分玩具都是他自己花錢買的，但也有朋友和家人送的。
His dream now is to eventually put his collection on display for the public or even open a museum to "give others a chance to revisit their own childhood memories."
他現在的夢想是，最終可以向大眾展示他的藏品，甚至開一間博物館，「讓其他人有機會重溫自己的童年記憶。」Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1529024 ; https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/paper/1464916
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Topic: Philippines Returns to School, Ending One of World’s Longest Shutdowns
Millions of students throughout the Philippines headed to school Monday as in-person classes began to fully restart for the first time in more than two years, ending one of the world’s longest pandemic-related shutdowns in a school system already plagued by severe underinvestment.
全菲律賓數以百萬計的學生周一重新上學，這是兩年多來菲律賓首度全面恢復實體課程。原本就投資嚴重不足的學校系統，遭逢新冠疫情開始封校，時間之長在全球數一數二，現在終於結束了。
“We could no longer afford to delay the education of young Filipinos,” said Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the education secretary, as she toured schools in the town of Dinalupihan, about 40 miles northwest of Manila.
副總統兼教育部長薩拉．杜特蒂到首都馬尼拉西北方65公里處的迪納路匹罕市巡視學校時表示：「我國年輕人的教育再經不起耽擱」。
Even before the pandemic, the Philippines had among the world’s largest education gaps, with more than 90% of students unable to read and comprehend simple texts by age 10, according to the World Bank.
甚至在新冠疫情爆發前，菲律賓的教育落差跟各國相比就十分巨大。世界銀行調查發現，菲國超過九成學童到了10歲仍無法閱讀和理解簡單的課文。
Schools in the Philippines have long suffered from shortages of classrooms and teachers, whose pay is low, leaving the vast numbers of poor children who cannot afford private schools and rely on the public system with inadequate teaching.
菲律賓的學校長期缺乏教室和師資。老師薪水低，導致念不起私立學校只能讀公立學校的眾多窮人家子女，無法接受適合的教導。
Now, after losing more than two years of in-person instruction, schools face the challenge of educating many students who have fallen even further behind. Although the Philippines offered online instruction during the pandemic, many students lacked access to computers or internet connections, and overburdened parents often found it hard to keep tabs on their children’s remote learning.
如今，在面對面授課停擺兩年多後，學校面臨的挑戰是學習進度落後更多的學生。雖然菲國政府在疫情期間提供線上課程，許多學生卻沒有電腦或網路連線，負擔過重的父母親經常發現付不起子女遠距學習費用。
In some cases, students’ already tenuous connection to school may have been severed entirely after so long away.
在某些個案，學生和學校的聯繫原本就斷斷續續，經過疫情封校這麼久的折騰，學生跟學校可能完全失聯。
In many other countries, as the negative effects of online learning became well documented, governments elected to send children back to classrooms even as the coronavirus continued to circulate widely.
在許多其他國家，線上學習的負面效應已經被詳細記載。縱然新冠疫情持續散布，政府仍決定讓學生返回教室。
But in the Philippines, government officials and parents remained hesitant, with fears that schoolchildren could bring the virus to homes crowded with multiple generations of family members, potentially overtaxing a creaky health care system.
但是在菲律賓，政府和父母親仍猶豫不決，擔心子女會把病毒從校園帶回家，殃及數代同擠一堂的家人，可能會讓已搖搖欲墜的健康照護體系負擔過重。
Starting in late 2021, the government began to experiment with conducting in-person classes in about 300 schools, but has begun expanding it to cover all primary and secondary schools. Currently only some schools are in-person all five weekdays; by November, all of the country’s roughly 47,000 schools will be.
從2021年晚期起，菲國政府從300間學校開始實驗師生面對面上課，現已擴及到全國小學和國中。目前只有部分學校一周五天都是實體上課。到11月的時候，菲律賓全國約4萬7千所學校都會恢復實體上課。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/6567634